Psychological need satisfaction and thwarting: A test of Basic Psychological Needs Theory in physical activity contexts

摘要

To test Basic Psychological Needs Theory (BPNT; Deci & Ryan, 2002) to determine if psychological need thwarting experienced when physically active contributes to the understanding of well-being and ill-being. Design/method: Participants (N=155, 67.70% female, M_(age)=37.46 years; SD_(age)=19.89 years) completed assessments of psychological need satisfaction and thwarting, subjective vitality and positiveegative affect during separate testing sessions separated by 6 months. Results: Scores from the modified version of the Psychological Need Thwarting Scale (PNTS-PA; Bartholomew, Ntoumanis, Ryan, & Th?gersen-Ntoumani, 2011) demonstrated discriminant evidence of validity, evidence of internal structure and minimal error variance. Changes in psychological need satisfaction positively predicted positive affect (R~2=.16, p<.05), subjective vitality (R~2=.13, p<.05) and negatively predicted negative affect (R~2=.12, p<.05). Additional regression analyses revealed that changes in psychological need thwarting predicted negative affect (δR~2=.11, p<.05), but not positive affect (δR~2=.01, p>.05) or subjective vitality (δR~2=.04, p>.05) beyond contributions made by psychological need satisfaction. Conclusions: Overall, these results extend the potential utility of the PNTS-PA as an instrument for use with BPNT beyond sport and support Deci and Ryan's (2002) contentions regarding the critical role of psychological need thwarting.